Duluth Metals Prepares for Further Exploration, Loan Helps

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KBJR News 1

April 9, 2013Updated Apr 9, 2013 at 8:27 PM CDT

Ely, MN (NNCNOW.com) - Once the snow melts, geologists at Duluth Metals, the company that has joint ownership of the Twin Metals project in Ely, will continue exploring more precious metal deposits in northeastern Minnesota.

"It's very exciting if you find something different. You come back and everybody gets excited and you sit around and talk about what it could mean," said geologist Evan Finnes.

Geologists at Duluth Metals have already discovered that the deposit of copper–nickel and other precious metals in Northeastern Minnesota is much bigger than the company once thought.

"[The Twin Metals Project], the numbers we put out recently, those are on 11 percent of the property. So there's still 89 percent of the property, well – you do the math. That's big numbers," said Duluth Metals V.P. of Exploration, Dean Peterson.

Peterson says the findings will likely get bigger as geologists take to the field this spring, continuing their study of the deposits within the 40,000 acre Duluth Complex.

"It [the new area of exploration] starts kind of southeast of Ely, probably twenty miles, and extends for forty or fifty miles along the base of the Duluth Complex," said Peterson.

Helping with their exploration and the development of the Twin Metals Minnesota Project is a $30 million loan from CEF Holdings Limited, a major financing company based out of Hong Kong.

"Simply for them, it's an investment and an investment in what's obviously a world-class, tier-one asset in mining," said Duluth Metals President, Vern Baker.

The loan will help Duluth Metals pay for their portion of the Twin Metals Project, which they own jointly with Chilean mining company Antofagasta.

Meanwhile, geologists will continue to analyze the deposit's data, waiting until spring when they can discover more.

"We're all twitching to get back out in the field," said Finnes.

Peterson says that the company will start working with the U.S. Geological Survey this summer to study how the area's watershed could be impacted by the mining operations.